


You Are Awesome

by elderprices



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 20:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5063146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elderprices/pseuds/elderprices
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elder Cunningham is in awe of his new mission companion and everything he's prepared to do for the church.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are Awesome

He told me on the plane. Or rather, I had overheard. The magnitude of it all seemed to be getting to him–he pulled out a handkerchief time and time again to dab away at his sweaty forehead as he talked himself down. Saying things like “it’s okay” and “you got this” and the ever important “you are awesome.” If it did nothing to soothe him, it certainly eased my nerves. I had faith in him. And whether or not he believed himself, I knew he was right. He _was_ awesome.

 

Those worries of his returned later in the night. He paced the floor for a good ten minutes while he mulled over the troubles of our mission, and how we may have bit off more than we could chew. I told him that, between the two of us, we could chew a lot. Not even a smile.

Finally, he settled onto the side of his bed, and I rolled over to join him. Together at all times and all that. He didn’t quite appreciate my company, and in retrospect I was a bit oblivious to his uncomfortable shifting. I only wanted to make him happy. To see that confident smile of his; the same smile he constantly beamed back home.

“Don’t forget what you told me. You are _awesome_.” And sure enough, he smiled.

The next morning he bounded up and out of the mission hut with newfound certainty. I was just grateful to be along for the ride. He told me to stand and nod and support. I stood and nodded. And I watched as he paraded proudly across the dirt village square, book in hand, smile gleaming.

The villagers were none too happy with his presentation. He was none too happy with mine, either. His arms waved frantically, fingers poking at my chest, and all I could do was keep smiling. If only to keep some positivity in the air of an already disappointing day. But I could only try so long before the villagers scattered with the echoing of a general’s call.

The village was in a hush. In the stark quiet, he turned to me, taking my shoulders in his strong but shaking hands. He told me to stay put. I reminded him of the rules. He told me to forget about the rules. And he stepped forward, into the midst of the silence, under the nose of the general.

I stayed put. Just like he said to. Because I had faith in him.

He introduced himself, with his chest puffed out, like he wished to intimidate. The general gave a lazy glance to him–a skinny white boy in a clean cut American uniform–and laughed. There was a sharp crack. It splintered through the thick air, and the villagers all turned away in horror. He fell to his knees, a new bruise swelling down from his brow. The general raised the butt of his gun for another blow, this time knocking right into my partner’s brilliant smile. He was hunched over now, panting and crying and spitting out his pearly molars. The general and his friends stood round, their laughter and his pained moans the only sound in the village. A few kicks, a couple curses, and he was barely moving in a heap on the ground.

The general grimaced to the rest of us. Muttering something dark about obeying his rules, and his wishes for female circumcision, and the consequences if any of us failed to follow orders. He raised the gun just barely, the sight set on the Mormon at his feet.

For a moment, the world beneath us seemed to slow. My partner, a bloody mess no more than three feet from me, opened his eyes to meet mine. A weak, trembling hand tried its best to reach out, to touch a familiar sight of a blurring black tie on a white shirt. His lips parted. And he coughed.

"Help.“

The shots echoed across the barren grounds. The general and his posse packed their artillery on their backs and nonchalantly fled the scene. Villagers retreated without a second thought. Leaving me alone with the lame body of what once was my companion. The awesome Kevin Price.

_Dead_.


End file.
